Category Archives: Baking

Kicking it old school, an Elementary classic

Posted on June 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

What is better than this? Ok, so this is better, and really good at disappearing (really fast)!
So what could beat the world’s best sandwich that is also appropriate for lunch, dinner, midnight snack? Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies!

I don’t know why I felt the need to move beyond the peanut butter & jelly sandwich, because truthfully I could eat it any day, at any time but sometimes you feel like a sandwich, and sometimes you feel like eating a bunch of cookies. Sometimes I feel like eating both, so that’s just what I did.

Here’s what you will need:

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
  • cinnamon and sugar for sugaring the cookies
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Recipe only slightly adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes about 30 cookies, depending on the size of the cookie, roughly tbsp sized.

Wow, butter is delightful – but not worth taste testing, yet!

Butter and peanut butter and sugar, and more sugar – getting closer!

Vanilla and egg are added. I do taste the dough here. I know raw egg – yikes! – but I do it anyway.

Add in the flour and dry ingredients, and look at this crumbly, buttery deliciousness! Taste away – still raw egg if you’re squeamish!
Ball up those cookies and throw them in with some sugar (I added cinnamon because I like it). I also like how they look like little mini donuts.
Bake at 350 – after ten minutes you pull these guys out of the oven and make a little dip in the top of the cookie, bake for another 6 or 7 minutes. Then fill the little dip with your favorite jelly, jam, marmalade.

And then pour a big glass of milk.

It’s mandatory.
Peanut butter and jelly really loves milk.

Leave a comment

Posted in Baking, Comfort Food, Her Kitchen

Tagged , , ,

Life gives you Lemon Meringue Pie

Posted on June 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

>

Two things to know about me:

  1. If I am going to someone’s home I will always offer to bring something
  2. I am a pie girl, I take the buttery, fruity, chocolatey, sweet, savory type over cake on nearly any day.

Okay, back to present, last Sunday an invite for Father’s Day and my sister-in-law’s mom’s birthday linner is sent out. It turns out my sister-in-law’s mom’s favorite dessert is Lemon Meringue Pie. Full disclosure, I have never made a meringue, I have never made a lemon pie, and I have actually never tasted a lemon meringue pie. Sounds good, I can do this. By Thursday the above mentioned really starts to sink in. By Friday I am actively looking for recipes (thank you http://www.epicurious.com). By Saturday I am grocery shopping, and by Saturday evening a panic is starting to settle in.

Sunday I bake.


Ingredients: Pie crust, you’ll get this recipe at another time. Because of the doubt I was feeling about the filling and the topping I went with a store bought. Homemade or store bought you’ll want to use pie weights (rice, beans, pie beads) and pierce the dough with a fork – like you might have done with a frozen tv dinner’s plastic wrap as a kid.

Filling
1 cup sugar

5 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk
4 large egg yolks
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tsp fresh lemon zest

Meringue
4 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup of sugar

Recipe from Gourmet Magazine, 1995

Make filling:
In a heavy saucepan whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt and gradually whisk in water and milk, whisking until cornstarch is dissolved.
In a bowl whisk together egg yolks. Cook milk mixture over moderate heat, whisking, until it comes to a boil, this happens all of a sudden and the mixture is surprisingly thick.
Take the pan off the stovetop and gradually mix into the egg yolks, whisking all the while so that your eggs aren’t scrambled. Return egg and cornstarch+milk mix to the stove. Simmer mixture, whisking, 3 minutes.
Remove pan from heat and whisk in butter, lemon juice, and zest until butter is melted. Cover surface of filling with plastic wrap.
Make meringue:
In a large glass or metal bowl with an electric mixer beat egg whites with cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until they hold soft peaks. Beat in sugar in a slow stream, beating until meringue just holds stiff peaks.
Pour filling into shell and spread meringue on top, covering filling completely, sealing it to pastry. I found it worked best to allow the meringue to lap up onto the baked pie crust. Draw meringue up into peaks and bake pie in middle of oven at 350 until meringue is golden, about 15 minutes.


Somewhere along these steps the first pie crust that I blind baked shrunk in the pan, do not forget to pierce the dough! So as I continued to mix, blend and whisk I snacked along the way on shrunken pie crust – it tastes just as good as you’d imagine, very.

The meringue was definitely the most intimidating, it’s very humid in DC (not good for flully egg whites) and after watching many episodes of Alton Brown I imagined it would be something you would have to learn how to make only from practice. Hah! Alton is such a good teacher, it worked! I just kept looking for the peaks. That’s them in picture #3.

Success! The pie was delicious, the meringue did shrink up a little bit and slide across the filling. So, while it didn’t look as picture perfect upon delivery as it did on the counter, it did get good reviews for taste. Things I would do differently next time: Put the meringue directly on the warm filling, this helps to set the egg whites; not drive 2+ hours before it gets served, this allowed the meringue to ride a slip and slide all the way there.

Leave a comment

Posted in Baking, Dessert, Her Kitchen, summer

Tagged , , , , , ,